After the Shattering
by silverflame3125
Summary: After the events of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon the world has been destroyed, even after Malafor's defeat the that have occured will continue to plague the world, but maybe this is merely an new begening for the world of the Dragon Realms
1. The Shatteirng

As the final hours of the war raged on, the fate of the world is left in the hands of the heroes who left to face Malafor; the self proclaimed God of Darkness. Uncertainanty plaugues the people as not only has Malafor reliquished control of his armies, causing them to fragment and discontinue coherent fighting, he prepears to bring an end to the world. The Destroyer inches ever closer to the volcano and there remains little that the people can do but wait and hope. Many of the injuried of the siege of Warfang, now wonder if their suffering and war wasl in vain, some however still hold out hope that maybe Malafor can be stopped, but their nummbers dwindle further and furtheer as the Destoryer looms closer to volcano. Knowing that their is nothing they can do any longer many resolve to spend the end of their days with their families, those who's families survived the three years of war.

Hope drains from the poeple as time wears on, after passiing through the wall of flame no one can even see the Destroyer now, but the suspense and magic in the air is nearly palpalable as the world prepars to rip itself apart. Sudden an explosion of energy originaties from within the wall of flame, the shockwave itself is weak, but everyone knows what it means. The heroes failed, the earth surges, mountains crumble, the seas churns and rage, gaint chasms appear as the earth splits iitself apart. Anyone who still has loved ones says their goodbyes and hopes that thee end of the world will at least be quick and painless.

Only those suisicial enough to remain outside recieved the first light of hope, the magical flames surrounding volcano suddenly go out, the people peer at the strange sight, the world is splitting itself apart, but sudden the apocolyptic flames of Malafor go out? Before anyone could even begen to guess what had just occured, another shockwave comes from the volcano, this one is followed by a expanding dome of light, nearly blinding anyone looking at it, the shockwave knocks out anyone without suffeciant magicial abilities out cold instantly. All of the Guardians were outside keeping watch for whatever may happen, seeing the massive shockwave approching only Cyril was capable of creating a shield of ice around him quickely enough. The wave impacts the shield and shatters it, seding Cyril slinding back a few paces, after recovering from the shockwave Cyril makes certain that those around him survived but many are mearly uncouncess, fearing more shockwaves Cyril quickely flies to the heighest point of the city nearby, the grand city wall, to observe the damage.

Cyril looks around him in shock, the nearby mountains have fallen bellow the city, but they are not alone, the huge fissors in the ground split the world around him, these plates and chunks of rocks float high above and far bellow. Even the city is broken into pieces, even more than it was during the seige, Warfang is split into several peices, with builidngs hanging percarlessly across the gaps. Still shocked Cyril takes a moment to fly to the edge of a nearby plate, looking over the edge next to a crumbling builidng, to his surpsrise strong winds greet him from bellow. Further bellow than even the smallest of fragments is a great calm sea, few waves disturbe it's calm surface except the small pieces of rocks still slinding off the plates. Still staring at the wonders that has taken place bellow him, Cyril hears a strange sound, it sounds like a child crying, remembering his responsiablities as a Guardian Cyril tears his eyes from the marval of a sight to take care of the people after this great calamity.


	2. The Shattered World

Elsewhere

In a largely uninhabited area, no one seems to be around to notice that following the initial burst of light, another, smaller one, only about a couple of meters large, when it subsides, two dragons, one purple with a gold underbelly and another with jet black scales with a deep violet underbelly, appear. The two are laying together unconscious and would not wake for another hour. The tranquil forest surrounds them, this far to the west few people live after they evacuated due to the roaming war parties of Malefor's armies. As such the two will remain undisturbed at least for the time being.

The Dark dragon is the first to awake, her eyes slowly creaking open, she shifts uncomfortably, groaning from the stiffness of her joints. "What happened... where am I?" she mumbles, trying to stand but her body is simply exhausted, after significant effort she resides to continue laying down. Her eyes beginning to clear she sees that they are in a quiet forest, leaning against her side she sees her companion Spyro laying againsted her. Gentling nuzzling him awake she tries to remember what had brought them here.

"Cynder, where are we?" Spyro groans upon awakening, Cynder merely nods "no", holding a paw up to his head in pain "do you remember what happened?" asks Spyro.

"Yeah, we had left with Ignitus into the wall of fire and..." Cynder trails off remembering what had happened, neither will say out loud what had happened. Not meeting each other's eyes, unsure what to do now. Before they had to press onwards to defeat Malefor, but now there is nothing to distract them from their sorrow. Sitting in a solemn silence, they remain, simply remembering the past, of all that had happened, before having to time to reflect for as long as they could remember.

"He... he sacrificed himself for us, we never could of made it without out him..." Spyro murmurs breaking the respectful silence, a strange sound from above rips their attention away from their sorrow. "What in the realms is that!", high up above them is a colossal mountain of earth just floating in the sky, just like Malefor's city-fortress. After recovering from their shock at the strange site, "lets check it out" Spyro says with resolve to press onwards.

Spreading their wings in flight the pair make good time going up to the strange island due to some confident updrafts. The large mountain of earth is actually a floating piece of land, complete with trees, animals, and even a small lake. Looking down from which they came they are surprised to see that they had awoken upon an even larger plate, far below even that is a great sea going off far beyond that which they can see. "Look over there!" shouts Cynder pointing out a village on a nearby plate with her paw.

"I guess that's as good of a place to start as any, let's go see what's happened to our world" affirms Spyro as the two spread their wings and take off into flight onto their new adventure.


	3. The village

A Few Moments Later

Taking flight once more, the pair hurry over to the village they had spied. The village is sprawling, bordering on being a large town, despite it's large size no inhabitants can be seen, "maybe they've all evacuated during the war" Spyro suggests disheartedly as the two land upon a cobblestone road. The town, while no pristine utopia, is still in good condition, if it was abandoned during the war than clearly it must of been recently, nature still has yet to overtake this sector of civilization in any sense. Regardless of its state of inhabitation, clearly the town has been fortified with some renovations such as pre-made deployable barricades and a couple of well constructed wooden watchtowers.

"Hmmmm..." mutters Cynder while observing the town they had arrived in, "something's wrong here, no army would possibly leave a village like this ransacked, and Malefor's armies had spread across the world, someone is definitely still living here, still fighting here..." she declares. Picking a building at random, the two approach what appears to be a library, entering the pair notice how clean and and orderly the place is. "Malafor definitely would seize these books and have them combed for information to support his armies".

"What kind of information would they be looking for in a place like this?" Spyro questions while observing the still lit candle next to an open book, a fantasy story about a purple dragon battling the forces of the evil dragon elder Red.

"Geographical, historical, magic tomes; anything that his armies could use in his conquest, not to even mention that he simply enjoyed collecting knowledge" she says continuing to investigate. "It's strange you know" she says stopping her investigation and walking over near Spyro.

"What was?" he asks seeing her approach and turning away from the book.

"The fact that he was still a person" seeing Spyro's strange look she explains further "he, for a evil and vile of a person as he was, he was just still a dragon just like us. He may of had the powers of a purple dragon, but he did the horrible, horrific things, because that was what he wanted to do, no one made him do those things. No one made him kill, loot, and destroy but his own selfish greed and powerlust". Noticing how somber they had both become she adds "but that doesn't matter right now, let's keep looking around".

Abandoning the conversation the two continue to explore the library, while Cynder looks in the backroom, in the backroom Cynder notices a sheet of paper called "A Review of Books Concerning Dark Age History" and starts to look at it. The paper catalogs where it got said books, where they are storied in the library, and how credible each source appeared. Spyro spies a room with cloudy glass windows obscuring view, "hey, Cynder" he calls her over. When she arrives the pair carefully open the door and enter, inside are two dragons. One of them is a young pink scaled dragoness wearing a heart shaped pendent, the other is around the same age as the other but is red scaled male with golden horns. The two are huddled together around a corner made with a knocked over table, both of them aren't moving and don't react when Spyro and Cynder enter the room. "Do you think that... they're?" Spyro chokes out fearing the worst.

"No... look closer, they're unconscious but still breathing" she replies.

"What should we do... try to wake them?" Spyro asks as Cynder is slightly more knowledgeable upon the subject. Wordlessly nodding she walks over to the pair and generally nudes both of them. The red awakens first groaning, Cynder steps back, a few moments pass and the red finally opens his eyes.

"Huh...Hello?" he says weakly in confusion, giving him a moment to get his bearings, Spyro and Cynder introduces themselves, leaving out their recent journeys. "Wheres..." he says before noticing the pink dragon leaning against him "Ember?" he says nudging her but she doesn't wake.

"Do you have any idea what happened... where is everyone" Spyro asks distracting the boy from trying to awaken his friend

"Everyone fled inside, a giant walking golem could be seen in the distance and everyone fled to safety, we both hid in the library. Soon afterward a shockwave ripples, causing the whole building to vibrate around us, fearing broken glass we hid in here to hopefully ride out the storm. The tremors didn't stop and somehow... somehow we knew it was the end, we could feel the world ripping apart, we huddled together in fear and... and..." he looks away in embarrassment.

Spyro having completely failed to guess what had happened said "and?" almost in anticipation.

"I...I admitted that I had feelings for her, and she...didn't say anything" he says, quickly backpedaling 'I mean it's not like she rejected me, but... I just don't know" he admits. Silence hangs over them as he realises that he has admitted something very personal when suddenly a groan comes from the dragoness called Ember.

Groaning awake "Flame...", giving her a moment unsure of what to do given what had just transpired. Groaning and rubbing her head "Flame, what happened, did you say something?", quickly giving us a look Flame clearly tells them not to say anything about what he just admitted. "Who this?" she says addressing Spyro and Cynder.

Answering for them Flame quickly says "they just wandered here and woke me up". After responding while looking at Ember he looks back a Spyro, his eyes open wide as he takes a closer look at Spyro and says "wait a minute aren't you the purple dragon!" he exclaims.

Remembering his special status he replies "uh, yes, I guess" he stammered out not sure how to respond.

"That awesome! So... can you use multiple elements, are you going to destroy Malefor like everyone said you would!" Flame says hopefully, nearly bouncing with excitement.

"Uh... Well... Uh" Spyro stammered, looking over at Cynder with a pleading face, unsure how to handle this.

"We've just faced him, we were able to stop the tremor causing the world to fall apart" Cynder says with an progressively annoyed tone as Flame starts to smile and Ember simply continues to look at Spyro in awe. "Don't get too excited, nothing's over yet, by his own admission he is eternal and therefore unkillable" despite saying that the Flame is excited and Ember is just coming to understand what's going on. Before they could continue to act in shock and awe at meeting a hero of legend a faint voice can be heard crying out from the distance. Looking around at each other the four resolve to put the situation on hold until they investigate the rest of the town.


	4. A Fragmented Village

Hours Later

Over the next few hours the town reawoke from the mass unconsciousness, children and the elderly were hit the worst with many requiring small amounts of medical attention, the majority of the town had gathered in a relatively small vendors market. Rumors concerning the presence of the purple dragon and the defeat of Malefor have run rampant among the town, Spyro, Cynder, Flame, and Ember all work collectively to assist in any they can. In a nearby building, again the same library, the four had slipped away from the confusion to decide what their next course of action is. The four knowing that they need to make a decision to make themselves known or to skip town and avoid the whole situation.

"We can't just leave, we need to help as much as we can" Spyro suggests with Flame and Ember nodding in agreement.

Cynder merely shakes her head and replies "if we reveal ourselves we could be stuck here as everyone will want to congratulate you, and we should try to return to Warfang as soon as possible, there's no doubt that Malefor's armies may be crippled but with an army of that size they could still crush Warfang". The four sit in silence again, all knowing that either decision could have dire consequences, leave the village when they may need them the most or risk an even greater catastrophe at Warfang.

"I do think that I may be of some help" a voice creaks from the doorway. The group all turns toward to doorway in surprise of them being discovered, standing in the doorway is the elder of the village; Rhoulos. "Thought I might find you here" Rhoulos adds.

"Is it really okay for you to be out of bed so soon?" asks Ember clearly concerned due to his old age.

Chuckling "what kind of leader would I be if during this time of crisis I sat in bed and laughed about?", walking over and taking a position against a wall facing the whole group, he continues "A messenger arrived in the village a moment ago" taking out and reading a message aloud, "attention to all this message may find". Taking a moment to clear his throat, "many of the armies of Malafor crumbled due to the wave of energy that erupted from the volcano. It would appear the Spyro, Ignitus, and Cynder who left Warfang to face Malafor succeeded at that at very least. Despite this reassuring news stay on guard, it is likely that the remainder of Malefor's generals will attempt to use this situation to their advantage. A council of local leaders who are not pressed by circumstance shall convene at Warfang 60 days from the date of the shockwave to leave Malefor's place". Looking back up from the paper he says "it would appear that their is no rush to return to Warfang just yet".

"Well that reassuring" Cynder says feeling almost a little about thinking of abandoning these people, with Spyro nodding in agreement.

"I would assume that you are Cynder" Rhoulos says indicating Cynder. Swallowing nervously she simply nods back at him. "Even in my old age even I can tell that you are not the one whom my children spoke of, Cynder The Terror of the Skies?" he asks gently in an nonaccrual voice as he can muster.

"She's not..." Spyro just gets out trying to prevent her from having to defend herself alone, when Cynder cuts in.

"When I was born Malafor used his magics to corrupt me, that may of been me one day, but I've been cured due to the actions of Spyro here" Cynder suddenly states with confidence that even she personally doesn't have. Flame looks at Cynder in a strange mixture of confusion and fear but Ember out of view of the others, turns toward her and gives Cynder a poisonous look of absolute fury. Ember calms her appearance before anyone can notice and decides to bide her time until she can take action for what that being has done.

"I had heard rumors of such magics were used by ancient evils, to thing that he had access to such powerful magics..." Rhoulos adds closing his eyes to focus, "this may not be information you want the people knowing, that being has hurt too many people, destoyed too many families" Rholos says with a sorrowful sigh.

"I understand, I'll just claim that she must simply have the same name as me" Cynder says understanding what she'll need to do, maybe for the rest of her life. Spyro looks away, he had never even considered that the one that he journey all this way with, the one he had fought alongside for this long, would have to hide her identity like a criminal on the run.

"Moving on from such a topic, would you be willing to say something to the crowd that has gathered" seeing Spyro's hesitation to take on such a role, Rhoulos adds, "something small at least, your presence will give the people the hope that they need in the face of these strange events".

Hearing the his almost desperate plea Spyro responds "okay...okay, I'll do it, I'll say a few words and then you can take it from there, okay?"

"Agreed" Rhoulos walks over to a the door leading the market and says, "well? go to the people as a hero they need to see you as", trying his best to give Spyro as much confidence in himself as possible. Despite the elder's encouraging words, it's the idea of going to these people; whom he had never met, who believe him to be a being of power rivaling that of the dark purple dragon Malefor, and acting like the hero that these people can believe in. Swallowing nervously Spyro walks through the door onto the smooth stone steps of the library.

To the people gathered outside Spyro's appearance wasn't immediately noticed, a small youngling accompanied by it's mother is the first to notice, "mommy who's that over there, their scales are so pretty?". The mother initially didn't see who her child spoke of, looking around in confusion her eyes soon meet with deep black iris of a purple scaled being simply standing there on the stairs above them. Nudging and whispering to those around her, soon the presence of the purple dragon was known to everyone, every single being in the plaza is simply staring at him, uncertain what to feel about his presence.

Standing with as much confidence as he can muster right now Spyro speaks up trying to project his voice across the entire plaza, "Hello people of this village, my name is Spyro, accompanied by my friend," he purposely leaves out her name, "and my mentor, we left to defeat Malefor, the purple dragon that has lead the armies opposing the people of these lands. Fighting through his forces stationed in the Burning Lands we prepared to face the most evil known being in existence. With the hopes of our fallen mentor we did battle with the evil dragon. He was immensely strong, even still I am uncertain as to how we could've possibly of defeated him but we had the assistance of the souls of every being whom's life that monster had taken. During our battle some of you may of noticed that we were unable to defeat him before he began the ritual to destroy the world, this is what caused the shockwave that knocked the people of this town out cold, however we managed to defeated him soon enough to stop any more damage to the world."

Stopping to take a deep breath Spyro continues his retelling of the events of the story "The world was tearing itself apart when Malafor was sealed once more, with the assistance of the remaining souls, who used me an a conduit of their own power" Spyro is making up explanations for things even he did not understand, "using their power we were able to reverse the destruction of the world. As some of you may of noticed the world is fractured, the once whole land is now a collection of floating islands, this new world will require adaptations to our new environments and as such I encourage you to listen to your elder Rhoulos who will make some suggestions as to our next course of action" Backing away from the center of stage like area in front of the library Roulos begins to speak to the people of his town, Spyro quickely retreats inside, suddenly out of breath and exhausted, he gets out of sight and lays down against the wall.

"You okay?" Cynder asks seeing his odvious fatigue.

"Yeah, I... I'd never given a speech like that before, or any speech at all. I'd never thought I would ever have to." Spyro says, exasperated from his speech.

Flame is leaning out a nearby window listening to Rhoulos talking to the villagers, Ember hower is staring Cynder while Cynder confronts Spyro. Ember grits her teeth at the thought of who this dark dragon is, even if she claims that she is different, Ember doesn't believe her, and it certainly as hell doesn't change what she has done. All ember can do is think about how she'll get her revenge on that bitch who took everything from her, the vile being that murdered her parents, her friends, Shela... And she fully intends to take everything from her too.


	5. The Shattered Departure

_That night_

With the village moral boasted with Spyro's shaky delivered speech and Rhoulos's elderly wisdom, the village is able to pull itself together and take precautions against possible invasions by Malefor's remaining forces. The guard is remobilized and taking stations to watch for any suspicious activity. The shattering of the world seems to of distressed the people but appears to of failed to bring harm the village itself. Spyro and Cynder continue to hide out from public attention inside the library, the pair are both inside of a silenced reading room, while Flame and Ember decide to continue to stay with them instead of going and staying with everyone else in the village, those two however retire to their own reading room to slumber. With much of the militia on watch the citizens resign to their beds for the night.

"So..." introduces Cynder, "we've stayed here for now, but is there really much more good we can do here?" she asks, trying not to sound as if their abandoning them.

Understanding her unwillingness to stay considering Rholus's previous warning, "now would probably be wise to return to Warfang, where there are other places our effort would be effective" Spyro says somberly acknowledging that their absence has likely causing many to assume the worst. "We should best take our leave in the morning, maybe getting some directions on where to go from here" Spyro suggests with a great yawn revealing how tired they both are after their eventful day.

Yawning "we should get some sleep, who knows what tomorrow might bring" adds Cynder curling up to go to sleep against one side of the desk. Closing her eyes she prepares to go to sleep, against the adjacent side Spyro lays down next to her gently laying his head against hers. A little startled initially by his actions, she soon enough she settles and simply enjoyed his comforting company for the night.

The next morning

Awakening once again in the morning the village finds to their surprise. raids had not befallen them during the night. As the people awakened for the day the pair make haste towards the elder's place of residence. Knocking the pair enter a small, quaint, home. Inside the home is a small room with a bed on the middle with the ancient elder laying upon it, his caretaker still had yet to arrive for the day and as such they are alone. Smiling at the pair he takes a stab at what they wish to to talk about "I would imagine that you have decided to return home", seeing the look upon their faces he can tell that he's guessed correctly. Continuing "I take it that the both of you intend to return to Warfang" again guessing correctly he then turns to address Cynder in particular "I cannot allow to leave with my conscious intact without informing you of this. many may fear your past identity, it may be wise to discuss your self more thoroughly than a merely feigning a similar name" Rhoulos suggest as Cynder nods in agreement. Standing up Rhoulos continues "I once knew a thief, who in exchange for a reduced prison sentence he shared how he was able to disappear into a crowd. He revealed that he used a form of shadow magics that could disguise the colorations and textures of a being, would you like for me to show you how to bend the light to your will?" he finally asks with what could be called dramatic flair for his old age.

Despite not wanting to learn such a skill that has been used by less than benevolent beings she merely responds "please do". Spending only a few moments Rhoulos simply explains how to use this magic, "like this?" Cynder says while trying it out for the first time. A shadow quickly coats her scales and when it falls away her physical features haven't changed but she now has deep red scales on her back silver-brown scales on her stomach, in this state even Spyro admits that he wouldn't even recognize her without watching her transform. After giving her demonstration she releases the magic and her scales fade back into her normal colorations.

"An ability as simply as that is quite easy to maintain for long periods of time, but panic or any loss of focus will cause it to degrade quickly, revealing your identity and thoroughly confusing whatever may of startled you, understand" Rhoulos helpfully adds.

"I do... thank you, Rhoulos, with this I may return without fear" Cynder responds in thanks.

"Despite what others might think, it is clear to me that you are not the demon that razed towns and slaughtered the families of many" Rhoulos adds on a somber note, "this village, wasn't always like this" he adds. Seeing the pairs confused he adds "when that being razed a town, the survivors largely came here, they saw our defense as a beacon of hope, despite the fact the the "Terror of the skies" would of easily crushed us. our village grew to a large town, but many were traumatized by what had happened. This situation likely occurred all around the world, she plunged the whole of the land into darkness and despair. Many of the realm were looking for someone to blame, someone they could exact their vengeance with, the dark dragons of the east became the main victims of these actions. I don't want to sit ideally by while this happens to yet another young live, not too long ago... I ... had failed my duty as the elder of this village, I don't plan to do so again". After Rhoulos's long winded explanation he lays back down in exhaustion, even he'll admit that he's not the spry young cub he once was.

"Now then... it's time for you two to continue your journey, always remember that..." Rhoulos is about to continue when another knock occurs at the door, "I would appear that I'm popular right now, come in" Rhoulos commands. Opening the door is Ember followed by Flame who both enter the room. "What is it you two younglings need?" Rhoulos asks in a kind and gentle voice.

"I asked the messenger yesterday if he had heard about any of my family at Warfang, he said that my aunt had made it there recently" Ember explains as Flame just stands next to her, confused at her explanation of why she needs to leave.

"You wish to travel to Warfang I take?" Rhoulos says with masked concern clear in his voice.

"Yes I would, I... I want to see my family again." she responds hiding her intentions to follow Cynder. Guessing that the Terror would return to Warfang she decides to leave ahead of her, but it would appear that she's heading out early, but it doesn't truly matter when she makes her move.

"Normally I wouldn't allow you to take such a risky journey especially not alone, but these two also intend to make a journey there, I take it you also wish to accompany her there Flame?" Rhoulos directs toward Flame.

"Yes... yes I'd like to go with her" Flame stammers out, while Spyro and Cynder know it's because Flame has feeling for Ember, it appears that Ember is completely ignorant of it, but Rhoulos has his own suspicions at both of their intentions.

"Hm... yes it should be okay, I know that neither of you've been here very long, there is no reason for me to deny you" Rhoulos flashes Cynder a look and they both know exactly what had happened to those two. Continuing and addressing the whole of the group "it would appear that all of you are going to Warfang, all of you may not be fully grown, but not a single one of you remain a child, if anyone else was to attempt to leave my care under such circumstances I would of stopped them, but I can sense from all of you that you'll go to do great things, change the lives of many". Resolve like feeling fills the room after the mini speech by Rhoulos. The four soon leave the village, all of them having few ties to those who remained to be severed. Leaving with some basic supplies Spyro and Cynder return to Warfang to discover what to do next in the shattered world, Flame follows his lifelong friend completely unaware of her intentions, while Ember follows Cynder to avenge those she loved, even if it comes to the end.


End file.
